Flipkart and Amazon to kick off festive season sale from October 8

While Amazon has not indicated when the GIF will end. Flipkart has said its sale will be a week-long event and end on October 15.

Two of India's biggest e-commerce platforms, Flipkart  and Amazon, are set to clash on October 8 with their flagship sale events. Flipkart’s flagship sale event, the Big Billion Days (BBD), will be live between October 8 and October 15.

The announcement comes days after Moneycontrol had reported that Amazon’s flagship sale, the Great Indian Festival (GIF), was starting from October 10, two days after Flipkart’s BBD. However, after Flipkart released its dates, Amazon has now altered its sale dates and notified customers that the GIF will begin from October 8, with early access to its Prime customers.

Even Flipkart's premium customers will have early access to the sale event.

Amazon has altered its dates even in the past since no e-commerce player would like to lose the initial few days of sale to rivals. The Amazon app, which initially showed that the GIF will begin from October 10 has now finally announced that it will begin the same day as Flipkart's BBD.

While Amazon has not indicated when the GIF will end. Flipkart has said its sale will be a week-long event and end on October 15.

For the sale, while Amazon said it has tied up with the State Bank of India for offers and cashback, Flipkart has partnered with ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, according to the app.

On the sale page, Flipkart has also said that it will reveal discounted prices much before the sale begins and from October 1-3, Flipkart will also sell a ‘lock pass’ to users.

With the recently introduced price lock feature, customers can pay a small deposit and ensure that a particular product, at a certain price, will be available for them later even if demand surges. The lock pass will shield customers from price fluctuations or stock outs which is typical during festive sales.

Along with the price lock feature, Flipkart is also likely to introduce virtual trial rooms, customer-specific beauty and personal care (BPC) guidance and other features, as reported earlier.

At a company event earlier this month, Flipkart said its loyalty programme and website homepage will be reworked for BBD.

Flipkart’s BBD page also teases a discount of 40-60 percent across categories like smartphones, electronics and accessories, home and kitchen, fashion, TVs and many more products.

The sale goes live at a time when the e-commerce industry is not growing as fast as before in the country and is also hurt by inflation.

E-commerce companies run a series of sales from September to October each year and these festive season sales are crucial because they help capture the sentiment of shoppers which then determines the performance of companies. Cumulatively, festive season sales account for about 50 percent of the gross merchandise value (GMV) for e-commerce companies.

This year, with customer sentiment remaining upbeat, festive season sales are poised to grow by up to 20 percent year-on-year (YoY) to touch Rs 90,000 crore in GMV this year, as per analysts at Redseer.